Dakota Johnson: Madame Web star’s best and worst film roles as Sony Spider-Man film fails to impress critics

Madame Web star Dakota Johnson has had 14 leading film roles so far, which have collectively grossed $1.45 billion globally. She is best known for playing Anastasia Steele in the erotic thriller trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey, which was responsible for around 90% of her total box office draw.

But Johnson has recently taken on a lead part in a superhero movie and the genre has been a reliable winner at the box office for more than 15 years. Unfortunately for Johnson, superhero fatigue has finally set in among audiences, and Madame Web looks like it will follow The Marvels, Blue Beetle, and Shazam! 2 as an expensive flop.

Johnson plays Cassandra Webb in the latest Sony Spider-Man Universe film - she is a clairvoyant paramedic who teams up with a group of young women who each has a special ability, and together they take on an evil Spider-Man-like villain.

Following terrible critics’ and audience reviews that put Madame Web as one of the worst superhero movies of the last 20 years, and rock bottom box office projections, the film may mark a low point in Johnson’s career.

But what else has the actress starred in, we look at her best and worst leading roles in her screen career so far:

Dakota Johnson’s best film roles

The Peanut Butter Falcon

Although it’s fair to say that Johnson has a fair number of clangers to her name, she does possess a decent set of acting chops, and when they’re channelled into a good film, she really shines. Peanut Butter Falcon is far and away her most acclaimed film with a critical score of 95% and audience score of 96% on review site Rotten Tomatoes.

Johnson’s character Eleanor is tasked with bringing a man with down syndrome back to a nursing home after he runs away and strikes up a friendship with a local outlaw. It’s Johnson’s most heartfelt performance of her career to date.

Bad Times at the El Royale

Whilst Bad Times is a little flawed with a messy plot, it still makes for an enticing thriller, and Johnson’s role as Emily, one of seven strangers in an otherwise deserted hotel is a necessary ingredient that would otherwise leave the film feeling rather flat.

Emily is a misunderstood but caring sister who has put herself in harm’s way to protect her younger sibling, and finds that she has become a central piece in the puzzle as the film unravels in a bloody climax. Johnson showed off her versatility as an actor in this outing, playing a character far more interesting than the love interest.

Dakota Johnson’s worst film roles

How to Be Single

2016’s Valentine’s Day offering How to Be Single follows Johson’s character Alice and her three girl friends as they decide to stop looking for true love and instead enjoy the single life. Emily in Paris star Lily Collins was originally cast as Alice but dropped out, which is probably what Johnson should have done too.

Clunky, awkward, and painfully unfunny, the anti-romcom manages to be even less entertaining than the array of cookie cutter Valentine’s films that have flooded the market - and Johnson is completely upstaged at every turn by supporting actress Rebel Wilson. 

Fifty Shades trilogy 

By some metrics the Fifty Shades movies are the best films Johnson has been involved in - they made a packet at the box office and were very popular across the movie’s target audience. However, in terms of plot dialogue, and the overall performance of the two leads (Johnson and Jamie Dornan), they’re hard to defend. 

The first film, which introduces Johnson’s Anastasia Steele as a sexually submissive partner to millionaire Christopher Grey, was at least unique as one of the first mainstream essentially softcore pornos, but Darker and Freed only sank further in the quest for cheap thrills.  

Madame Web

The reviews are in for Madame Web and they’re more scathing than they have been for any superhero movie since Catwoman in 2004. Johnson’s performance, which seemed half-hearted in the film’s trailer, is even less energetic in the movie, leading to The Guardian to call Johnson a ‘checked out leading lady’. 

In fact, Johnson’s movie is so bad that it surpasses the so-bad-it’s-good genre films like Batman And Robin and X-Men 3, and comes right back around to just being plain bad. Hopefully it won’t prove to be a career ender for an actress who, with the right film, can really knock it out the park.